The Daily News’ botched numbers-game contest has given the brand a black eye and succeeded in ticking off some of the paper’s most loyal readers – the polar opposite of what such brand-building contests aim to accomplish, experts said.

“I think it is a really dark day for the Daily News brand,” said Mark DiMassimo, a branding expert at ad agency DiMassimo Inc.

“What they claim they stand for are the interests of the everyday guy out in the street and when the everyday guy in the street wins, he expects to be paid,” said DiMassimo.

“Now they are saying – perhaps inadvertently – the hell with you, you don’t win. It’s a violation of trust,” DiMassimo said.

The News in its paper on Monday, blamed the judging agency, D. L. Blair, for the error. In Saturday’s paper, the number 13 in the Scratch n’ Match contest was printed instead of the correct number 12.

Anyone who scratches off three identical cash amounts would be a winner of $100, $1,000, $10,000 – or even $100,000. Thousands of the paper’ readers thought they’d won.

The correct numbers to scratch off should have been 9, 7, 5, 15, 12, 10, 1, 4, 3 and 2.

News President Les Goodstein said the paper is launching an investigation to get to the bottom of the unlucky 13.

“We are as upset as our readers at what has happened and are determined to carry out this inquiry on their behalf,” a statement from the News said.

“The biggest mistake . . . is the people who play these kinds of contests tend to be the most loyal readers – the people you least want to [irritate],” said Allen Adamson at Landor Associates, a branding firm.

“Short term, I think they will see a hit on circulation,” added Bill Koenigsberg at the advertising buying firm, Horizon Media.

But the contest “winners” who thought they had won – only to see the win evaporate due to the wrong number – may find it hard to forgive the paper.

Thousands showed up outside the Daily News offices yesterday to voice their displeasure – even though the fine print in the contest rules seems to legally absolve the paper owned by billionaire real-estate developer Mort Zuckerman from having to cover the error.

“Someone who felt they won and saw it snatched away from them, they are going to be pretty hard to assuage,” said Robert Passikoff at Brand Keys, a marketing consulting firm.

The News late yesterday said it planned to hold some special drawings for people whose numbers were disallowed due to the error.

But even that plan doesn’t seem likely to smooth some ruffled eathers. D.L. Blair said it could not say how many false winners were out there.